kernow Archives - Explore Cornwall

Lanhydrock House & Gardens

Caitlin — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 16:55:44 +0000

Smuggled away in the Fowey Valley near Cardinham is the Grade I listed house of Lanhydrock. Surrounded by over 800 acres of green land, this is a beautiful mix of architecture, gardens and woodland walks.

The name Lanhydrock was first used in 1201, but the area that the estate currently sits on was once a monastic farming community that was part of the Bodmin Priory in the 15th century. When the monasteries were dissolved in 1543 the land went to the local Glynn family and then to the Lyttelton family. Between 1577 and 1620, the estate was given to Thomas Trenance through marriage, but was sold to Richard Robartes of Truro in 1620, starting the Robartes legacy in this area.

Following Richard’s death, his son John took over in 1634 and attempted to build the grandest mansion in Cornwall, with formal gardens, a sporting park as well as developing the rich agricultural and mineral parts of the estate. The gatehouse with its wonderful octagonal walls was built in 1651.

After John died, the estate passed onto several different family members, however as they often had land and estates in other parts of the country, Lanhydrock was left neglected. It wasn’t until 1758 when George Hunt inherited the estate from his mother when more work occurred. He removed some of the east wing and added decorations, furniture and carpets; however he also accumulated several debts.

His successor was Anna Maria Hunt (later Agar from 1804), who along with the land and house, also inherited this debt. With help from the steward William Jenkin, she was able to restore the fortunes of this grand estate.

Her second child Thomas James Agar-Robartes had much of the parkland remodelled during his time in charge, adding new formal gardens and the ornamental drive that still exists today.

In 1881, a large fire started in the house, destroying a great deal of it and leaving only the north wing standing. Local architect Richard Coad was commissioned to reburbish the house, creating a mix of Jacobean and Victorian design. The impact of this fire was great and both Lord and Lady Robartes died in the following years. Their eldest son, Tommy Agar-Robartes took over the estate, but disaster struct again with the outbreak of WWI. During this time, mining in Cornwall was at breaking point, and Tommy was killed during the war.

Tommy’s younger brother Gerald inherited the estate next, but the family never really recovered and he handed it over to the National Trust in 1953.

Lanhydrock estate has quite a large garden, made up of smaller gardens dotted around the house. The higher garden behind the house and church was planted just before WWI, as was the southern half of the circular flower patch (the northern semi-circle was planted by the National Trust in 1972).
The formal gardens to the front of the house are surrounded by a mid-Victorian wall and also include 29 flat topped Irish yews.

The church that sits gracefully behind the house is dedicated to St Hydroc and is still used as a functioning chapel, with services on Sundays. Built in the 15th century, this church was often neglected and renovated alongside the main house.
The Robartes family crypt is still in situ under the pews on the southern side of the church.
The rather wonky cross that sits inline with the front entrance of the church is dated from the 9-11th century.

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Levant Mine

Caitlin — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 10:00:15 +0000

Levant is an eclectic mix of a number of smaller copper and tin mines found on the north coast in Penwith. This remote mine workings is perched on the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic and a substantial number of its buildings still remain. Made up of an eclectic mix of smaller mines, this workings has a long and significant history in Cornish mining.

The exact early history of this mine, like so many others, is a mystery. The first records start in 1670 and consist of some stop and start copper mining, although the exact dates are unknown – these first mines include Wheal Shop, Wheal Unity, Wheal Fortune, Zawn Brinny and Boscregan.

Remains of Compressor House built in 1901. From 1920 it was upgraded to produce electricity and air.

By 1748, Levant had already begun to amalgamate a number of these smaller mines and had found several rich copper lodes, quickly building enough work to employ over 500 people on the site. Levant became a very profitable mine during this period, second only to Boswidden to the south; the mines dues accounting for a third of those in the parish.
The 1850’s saw tin production begin to overtake copper. At this point the mine had reached a depth of 240-fathoms (440m) and had over 60 miles of tunnels driven out under the sea.

A series of photos showing the buildings and machinery around Skip shaft. Photo 1: the Levant site and 2: the restored Harvey’s whim engine

During the 1860’s and 70’s, Levant suffered from financial difficulties, particularly during the copper financial crash caused by large Welsh mines. The mine soldiered on through, making essential developments and was back making profits towards the end of the century. Based on these records starting from 1848, Levant was one of the top ten most profitable mines in Cornwall. This wealth also allowed the mine to continue on through the second half of the 19th century, despite the worldwide slump in tin prices. In 1880, Levant acquired its neighbour Spearn Consols, with Higher Bal engine house, which will be covered in a separate post. In 1895 a telephone was installed, one of the first used in a mine, allowing for quick communication.

Views of the pumping engine house built in 1835 for a 40″ engine, although it was later enlarged to 45″ in 1872. The last photo is the base of the pumping engine stack.

On the 20th of October 1919, the man engine which was installed in 1893 failed. Man engines were first introduced in 1842, the same year one was installed at Tresavean mine in Lanner; these were used to aid the transport of men down into the mine instead of ladders. A steam engine is used to raise and lower platforms, allowing miners to step from sidings in the shaft wall onto platforms as they go up and down. By 1919, Levant was one the last mine in Cornwall to still be using a man engine, although plans were in place to install a gig into a new shaft.

Remains of the stamps engine house. This would have housed a 32″ engine that drove 76 heads of stamps.

On the day of the incident, at approximately 2:30pm, the link connecting the engine beam and rod broke. This caused the rod to drop into the shaft, taking out the platforms and damaging the shaft. As this occurred towards the end of a shift, the man engine was full of workers returning to the surface, many who fell down the shaft or were crushed or injured. 31 people were killed. Following the incident, the engine was not repaired and the deeper parts of the mine abandoned.

The two lone chimneys on the site are those of the red brick topped chimney belonged to the stamps and the other to the calciners.

Levant mine closed in 1930, having never really recovered from the accident. During the 1960’s and 70’s, Geevor attempted to rework some sections of the mine, but had to make significant repairs to some of the tunnels under the sea to stop the influx of water flooding the tunnels. This last venture didn’t come to much and the Levant site was handed over to the National Trust.

The view down Skip shaft

Shafts

Lodes

Shafts

Lodes

This stack once belonged to the man engine involved in the 1919 disaster, along with some of the foundations and building walls also remaining.

Being the successful mine that it was, Levant had a large number of buildings and engine houses on its site, many of which still stand today. The central point of the mine is made of the buildings around Skip shaft including the 45″ pumping engine and the old 27″ whim with its electric replacement.

The wooden headgear placed over Skip shaft by Geevor during their reworking. The whole shaft was enclosed to try and prevent the salty sea air from corroding the machinery.

Engine Houses and Other Significant Buildings

>1835 – 26″ pumping engine on Engine shaft
1835 – 40″ pumping engine on Engine shaft
1836 – 32″ stamps engine
>1840 – 24″ whim engine on Skip shaft
1840 – 27″ whim engine on Skip shaft
1852 – whim engine possibly on Zawn Brinny shaft
1857 – 20″ man and whim engine
<1870 – 20″ crusher
1870’s – water powered stamps
1872 – 40″ pumping upgraded to 45″
1893 – man engine changed to 18″ and 30″ horizontal tandem
1897 – steam whim in a cavern on the 210 fathom level of old submarine shaft

1901 – Harvey’s 60′ engine for air compressor house
1906 – stamps made double acting
1919 – concrete bases for twin cylinder horizontal whim from Basset Mine that was never erected
1920 – engine in air compressor house replaced with electric engine and electric air compressors
1922 – New Mill for dressing ore
1929 – electric hoist

26″ indoor beam engine possibly on Batten’s shaft
26″ pumping or whim engine
?21″ pumping engine possibly on Batten’s

Levant was a very rich copper and tin mine and it’s first recorded production records dates from 1793 and included 10 tons (10,160.5kg) of copper. Between 1820 and 1930 the mine extracted over 24,000 tons (24,385,126kg) of black tin, 130,000 tons (132,086,098kg) of copper and 4,000 tons (4,064,188kg) of arsenic. In 1912 there was also a recorded 5,273 oz (115,217.8kg) of silver and 4 oz (0.1kg) of gold.

Levant also mined a large number of other minerals in smaller quantities, although most of these were recorded in the Wheal Unity and Spearn Consols area: copper silicate, arsenates, zinc, lead, antimony, molybdenum, cobalt, tungsten, iron, quartz, fluorospar, aragonite (calcium carbonate), garnet, tourmaline and gypsum among others.

Photos from the Levant dressing floor. Photo 1: remains of the arsenic calciners; 2: 1920’s tin mill; 3: settling tanks and slime pits; 4: waterwheel powered stamps; 5: view of the dressing floor.

Levant had a significant dressing floor, built up over its many years of work. The older sections would have once stood closer to to Skip shaft, but the most prominent remains are that of the 1922 New Mill built further down the slope closer to Geevor. At various stages of its life it would have had four brunton calciners, nine buddles, 24 frue vanners, settling tanks, slime ponds, thickening pits, a labyrinth, a flue, copper precipitation plant and leaching tanks. The mine also used several different types of stamps: California, Frazer’s and Chalmers and Nissen.

The concrete foundation for a new horizontal whim that was never installed in a shaft that wasn’t dug.

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The post Levant Mine appeared first on Explore Cornwall.

A Walk Around Luxulyan Valley

Caitlin — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 19:48:32 +0000

A little while back, my aunt sent me a link to a walk in a part of the county I’d never visited before. This walk took us through the Luxuylan Valley, a wooded area just north of Par, near the village of Luxulyan. After far too long on the back burner, we finally made our way up the narrow country lanes to the woods.

The woods follow the Par River for two miles and is peppered with mining remains. In 2006 it was granted World Heritage status due to its role in Cornish history and is currently looked after by the Friends of Luxulyan Valley.

At the head of the trail is the famous Treffry Viaduct, built between 1839 and 1842 to function as both a viaduct and an aquaduct. The giant structure was ordered by Joseph Thomas Jeffrey, the owner of nearby Fowey Consols, using granite from his own quarries. There are a total of ten 40′ (12.2m) arches and it is comprised of an estimated 5664 cubic metres of granite.
The tramway that went across the top ran from Pontsmills, via the Carmears Incline, up to Luxulyan; here is joined the railway between Newquay and Bugle. This was the first stone viaduct built in Cornwall.

Throughout the dense woodland, you can also see the remains of the tramroads built for horse drawn carriages, used to transport stone, china clay and copper ore.

A walk through the Luxulyan Valley can be as long or short as you like. There’s a series of circular walks around the woods, each of which can be seen on the sign near the main carpark entrance (there isn’t another signpost in the woods, so remember to take a photo of this one while you can).

One particularly special part of the woods is that of the Carmears Wheal Pit. Built in 1841-42, this substantial granite, wood and metal structure half way down the valley once held a large 30′ water wheel. The power from this was used to haul carts up the Carmears Incline from Fowey Consols mine until the 1870’s. Later it was reused to power a china clay grinding mill and the wheel was replaced with a larger 40′ wheel and new grinding pans built alongside it. Some of the machinery from it’s later venture can still be found rusting within it’s walls.
Due to leaks causing damage to the viaduct, there is currently no water running through the waterwheel area. The Cornwall Heritage Trust have applied for funding to fix this.

Running alongside many of the paths are a number of leats, with the upper one known as Carmears Leat and was responsible for bringing water from the River Par near Cam Bridges to the Carmears Waterwheel. From here the water drained into the lower set of leats, the Fowey Consols leats, where it went onto Fowey Consols mine. The leat system was completed and set to work in 1842.

The Par River rushes through the eastern side of the woods, with the Newquay to Par railway also running alongside. Back in the days when china clay mining was at its peak, the river was stained white from all the china clay that ran into it.

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Swanpool to Maenporth Walk

Caitlin — Sun, 10 Feb 2019 11:12:08 +0000

The walk from Swanpool to Maenporth is a lovely little one, even on a cloudy day like this. One gloomy day in early 2019 Scottie and I took a walk along the coast path between the beaches.

The path starts just on the right side of the beach, rising up to give wonderful views all the way up the coast to Swanpool, Gylly, Pendennis Castle and over onto St Mawes.

There are a whole bunch of little beaches scattered along the coastline, some harder to reach than others.

Soon the path comes to Sunny Cove and Newporth Head.

One of the small headlands is named Pennance or Stack Point. This once held a stack for Swanpool Mine, although this is long gone. On the waters edge are the remains of the entrance to an old sewage outlet on Pennance Point.

The walk ends at Maenporth beach, a wonderfully sheltered cove perfect for swimming and kayaking – there’s even a shipwreck just off the coast here.

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